Mystic masonry, or, The symbols of freemasonry and the greater ...

The Genius of Freemasonry. 103
meaning became lost to all except the select few to
whom it was confided; it being concealed from the
common people, because the Deity, thus metaphysically
named, was not that personal and capricious,
and, as it
were, tangible God in whom they believed,
and who alone was within reach of their rude capacities.
. . . This was the profound truth hidden
in the ancient allegory and covered from the general
view with a double veil. This was the exoteric
meaning of the generation and production of the
Indian, Chaldean, and Phoenician Cosmogonies; of
the Active and Passive Powers; of the Male and
Female Principles; of Heaven and its Luminaries
generating, and the Earth producing; all hidden
from vulgar view, as above its comprehension; the
doctrine that matter is not eternal, but that God was
the only original Existence, the Absolute, from
Whom everything has proceeded, and to Whom all
returns. . . . And
this True Word is with entire
accuracy said to have been lost, because its
meaning was lost even among the Hebrews, although
we still find the name (its real meaning unsuspected)
in the Hu of the Druids and Fo-Hi of the
Chinese."*
•Morals and Dogma, p. 700 et seq.